The super group almost lived up to super hype

By Bill Dwyre

June 13, 2008 7 AM PT

LA JOLLA -- Undeterred by blocked vision, claustrophobia or fear of porta-potty shortages, the expected huge crowd showed up at the U.S. Open golf tournament Thursday to watch the Fab Three.

OK, they came to see Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and third-ranked Adam Scott got to play along.

It started shortly after 8 a.m., the masses already crouched in their starting blocks around the tees and along the fairway ropes, ready to dart to any open space.

Well, it actually started with some good humor even before the Thrilling Threesome arrived.

Teeing off immediately before golf’s deity were Mark Calcavecchia, Oliver Wilson and Joe Ogilvie. Ogilvie pondered the scene around the tee -- and all the way down both sides of the fairway as far as the eye could see -- and deadpanned, “I didn’t know Calc was this big in San Diego.”

Soon, Woods, Mickelson and Scott arrived, shook hands and came out swinging. And, about five hours later they finished, gathered near the back of the 18th green, and shook hands again.

In between, a good time was had by all.

Mostly.

Mickelson shot even-par 71, Woods was one over and Scott two over. Mickelson, probably speaking for his playing partners as well, said the goal in events such as the U.S. Open is to stay around par and see what happens. All three did that, and have three more days to see what happens, including another perfect-storm pairing today at 1:36 p.m.

They played on a day that rewarded both them and the 42,000 fans on hand, the majority of whom either followed the Tiger Trio the whole way or checked in on them from time to time.

Skies were blue, with a few soft clouds. There was almost no wind and the ocean views from the cliffs of La Jolla were spectacular.

The fans, squeezed along the ropes, around greens and tees and sometimes standing 10 and 12 deep hoping for just a glimpse, remained in mostly good humor throughout. Their biggest frustration seemed to be the hordes of media, with armbands that allowed them inside the ropes, sometimes blocking the view.

“Never saw so many people inside the ropes before,” Woods said, laughing.

Mickelson said the super-threesome pairing made him proud of San Diego golf fans.

“It was all positives, no negatives,” he said. “It made me proud to be from here.”

He apparently hadn’t heard the fan who kept bellowing, “We’re with you, Adam. Those other two guys are just hacks.”

But even that seemed to be in fun.

The fans who hung in there got their money’s worth, with shots from the three best players in the world that you would only see from, well, the three best players in the world.

Woods started with a double-bogey six, and joked later that he needed to get himself into the flow of the tournament “so I took six swings on the first hole.”

But despite his being away from the tour from the end of the Masters until Thursday because of knee surgery, he was back to being Tiger Woods by the fourth hole. On that par-four, 448-yarder that plays south-to-north along the ocean, Woods drove his ball into a bunker on the right. His lie wasn’t especially good and he had 209 yards to the pin, so he did what any normal golfer would do: He hit a five-iron to three feet and made birdie.

On the par-three eighth, Woods and Mickelson hit the green and Scott barely flew the bunkers in front and came to rest about 15 feet from a front pin, but in heavy rough and on an uphill lie. The shot demanded nerve to accelerate the club through and touch not to accelerate too much. Scott chipped it in for a birdie.

On the par-five ninth, 612 yards, Mickelson hit his tee shot into the long rough on the right. Directly between him and the green, probably 350 yards away, was a big tree. From 10 feet behind him, the ball sat so low it could not be seen.

The sensible shot was a pitching wedge sideways back onto the fairway. The risk/reward/one-chance-in-10-you-can-make-it shot was some sort of low stinger, with a lower iron that might not get the ball up and out of the heavy stuff if you don’t stay down on it. Then there was the matter of hooking it around the tree to a narrow neck of fairway in front of the green.

Mickelson hit the low stinger, just under the tree to the narrow neck of the fairway, then got a wedge close enough to make par.

These are things you don’t see in your Sunday foursome at Brookside, which is probably why the galleries are smaller there.

The Marvels from Mars met the media afterward, and there were revelations.

Scott said Tiger’s knee seemed fine, “especially when he hit that 360-yard drive.”

Tiger said the most important thing he learned was “that I could walk 18 holes.”

Mickelson, responding to questions from ever-vigilant golf writers who stay on top of these things, admitted that, yes, he had, for the first time, taken his driver out of his bag and hit a three-wood off the tee.

“My plan was for distance control,” Mickelson said, “to not hit the ball through the fairways, to keep my drives around 300 yards.”

While you roll your eyes, also understand that this is why 42,000 people get up in the middle of the night, park miles away to be shuttled into the middle of a claustrophobic circus and scratch and claw for just a glimpse or two.

And they’ll do it again today. Same place, same station.

Same three supermen.

Bill Dwyre can be reached at [email protected]. For previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Top of the world

How Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott fared in Thursday’s first round:

TIGER WOODS

+1 -- 72

PHIL MICKELSON

E -- 71

ADAM SCOTT

+2 -- 73